Hey guys,
I am brand new to the forum, although I have been a Buell fan for a long time. I just wanted to share a little bit about myself, my past bikes, and the Buell I'm proud to own now.
I've actually had this Buell since December 2012, but I haven't had time to post about it until now. I work two jobs and go to school full time. That's work 7 days a week, and school 6 nights a week.
I pay all my own bills, including rent, insurance, bills, tuition, books, loans, and recently, the purchase of my dream bike, so I don't get much time to do anything but work to pay it all off. I genuinely enjoy paying for all my own stuff, and keeping a 3.77 GPA while doing so, so I don't complain about my lack of free time. But, with this hectic schedule, now is the only time I've had free to catch up on BuellXB, so here I am.
I'll start by saying this is NOT my first Buell. My first bike, when I was 18, was a Kawasaki, which I sold early on. When I was shopping for my next sportbike, I heard about a little company called "Buell." My Dad actually turned me on to them, and almost immediately, I fell in love with their bikes. One bike in particular stood out to me - a Midnight Black/Red 2009 Firebolt XB12R - I just HAD to have that bike. It was too badass. My biker buddy and I both got really into Buells, and about the time we decided we both wanted a Lightning, and could be found on the Buell website literally every day of the week, Buell announced it was going out of business. Without so much as a second thought, I scraped every spare dime I had together, and marched to the local Buell dealership literally with a fist full of cash for a down payment. The dealership, however, was a Bag O'Dicks (being a HD dealer, after all) and they literally laughed me out of the showroom. As a result, I went to a competing dealership, and the salesperson there was happy to buy the Buell through HIS dealership, and have it delivered to me. The idiocy of the original Buell dealer still astounds me, but they went out of business, so I guess I got the last laugh. Anyway, I had a brand new 09 Cherry Bomb XB12Scg, which I was immensely proud of, but which I also totalled just 16 days after I bought it. I hadn't even surpassed the break-in mileage, or taken the temporary plates off.
I was badly shaken from the wreck, and emerged with a detached speedometer permanently frozen at 35mph, some major back pain, and a much greater respect for motorcycles. It was a long time before I decided to ride again, and when I did, I bought a very un-Buell-like Kawasaki Concours 1400 sport tourer. It is by all means a great bike for what it is - I even took it on a solo ride from Louisiana, through Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Arizona when I was 20. The trip had been on my bucket-list since high school, so I decided to get it done while I still had the time. I believe it was over 7,000 miles, and spanned over 20 days spent riding, visiting friends and family, and sleeping in hotels, tents, and rest-stop park benches, as well as 30 miles of off-road riding (on a 700lb highway bike!) to camp in the Mojave Desert. The trip was awesome, and the massive loan I took to pay for it is one I am still paying for today. It was well worth it, though, and the pictures below highlight some of the best parts:
Redwood National Forest
Entering California
Route 66
Mojave Desert
Grand Canyon
Me vs Giant Saguaro Cactus - Arizona
Mojave Desert
Okay, so fast forward to present day, and I'm 22, working more-than-full-time, and going to school more-than-full-time as well. "The grind" had really been getting to me, and after a nasty relationship, a bad living situation with loser room-mates, and particularly low point in my life, I decided in one fell swoop to get a new apartment, and fill the HUGE void in my life that I had been longing to resolve. For a LONG time, I had been wishing I had a Buell - a Firebolt - so that I could once and for all, have THE sportbike I felt would fit me like a glove. I don't know how to describe how bad I wanted the bike, and perhaps you guys can understand that I didn't just
want the bike, I genuinely NEEDED it. So, I signed the lease to my new loft apartment, and then began searching like mad for the right bike. For a long time, I couldn't decide between the black or white 08-09 XB12R, but I knew I had it down to those two. Something about being a huge Top Gear fan, made the White/Blue bike really stand out to me (Stig's Bike?) so when I had the color chosen, I shopped through several bikes on Craigslist before finally getting the one you see below. It was actually being sold by another member here, although I forget his username. The bike was 9 hours away, in Georgia. I was in Louisiana, and I had final exams, and two jobs to contend with - but I didn't care. So, as soon as finals were done, I took three days off from work, and drove like a madman all the way to Georgia to pick up the best present I have ever gotten myself. The bike was damn near brand new, with only 3,366 miles, one careful owner, and a whole bunch of extras, including a jacket, a pair of bike stands, and an uninstalled Hawk performance muffler (WHAT A PIPE!!!). The bike wasn't running properly, but new spark plugs, and spark plug wires fixed the problem, and now the bike runs and sound INCREDIBLE. On the way back from Georgia with the bike, I made a point to visit the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, and I was COMPLETELY blown away with all the stuff they had there. I was literally there from the minute they opened, to the minute security came up to tell me they were closing. Very graciously, the security officer took me on his closing circuit, where I got a lot of behind-the-scenes access to parts of the museum that everyday folks don't normally get.
The entire trip - from the drive to Georgia, to glorious moment of picking up the bike, to visiting the largest bike museum in the world - was THE most exciting, action-packed, joy-filled, adventurous three-day vacation anyone in my position could ever ask for.
I brought the bike home, decided my living room would be the perfect place to remove the rusty, stock pipe, and install the freshly powdercoated Hawk pipe. To this day, the bike sits in my dining room, where I do small, restorative upgrades and repairs to it, to get ready to ride this spring. It looks damn fine, if I do say so myself, and it feels like a miniature museum in my apartment now. Absolutely killer. I really, really busted my ass in school and at work for a long time without a social life, or taking any real time for myself, so I am quite happy that I have this Buell to show for it. It's everything I expected it to be, and more, and was exactly what I needed to quell some of the stress of work and school.
I hope you guys enjoy the pictures, and for those of you who read the whole thing - I hope you enjoyed the story as well. Sorry about the uber long post, but I just rarely get time off, so I figured I'd catch up on all the bike-related storytelling I could at one time. I have to get back to catching up on homework so I can relax later and work on getting the bike ready to ride!
Cheers!
- Roger111R
First picking the bike up.
THE ACTUAL DANNY ESLICK, AMA-WINNING 1125! - Barber Museum
More Buells at the Museum:
Exhaust install:
Stock pipe coming off:
My Buell. AKA "Museum Exhibit"
I am brand new to the forum, although I have been a Buell fan for a long time. I just wanted to share a little bit about myself, my past bikes, and the Buell I'm proud to own now.
I've actually had this Buell since December 2012, but I haven't had time to post about it until now. I work two jobs and go to school full time. That's work 7 days a week, and school 6 nights a week.
I pay all my own bills, including rent, insurance, bills, tuition, books, loans, and recently, the purchase of my dream bike, so I don't get much time to do anything but work to pay it all off. I genuinely enjoy paying for all my own stuff, and keeping a 3.77 GPA while doing so, so I don't complain about my lack of free time. But, with this hectic schedule, now is the only time I've had free to catch up on BuellXB, so here I am.
I'll start by saying this is NOT my first Buell. My first bike, when I was 18, was a Kawasaki, which I sold early on. When I was shopping for my next sportbike, I heard about a little company called "Buell." My Dad actually turned me on to them, and almost immediately, I fell in love with their bikes. One bike in particular stood out to me - a Midnight Black/Red 2009 Firebolt XB12R - I just HAD to have that bike. It was too badass. My biker buddy and I both got really into Buells, and about the time we decided we both wanted a Lightning, and could be found on the Buell website literally every day of the week, Buell announced it was going out of business. Without so much as a second thought, I scraped every spare dime I had together, and marched to the local Buell dealership literally with a fist full of cash for a down payment. The dealership, however, was a Bag O'Dicks (being a HD dealer, after all) and they literally laughed me out of the showroom. As a result, I went to a competing dealership, and the salesperson there was happy to buy the Buell through HIS dealership, and have it delivered to me. The idiocy of the original Buell dealer still astounds me, but they went out of business, so I guess I got the last laugh. Anyway, I had a brand new 09 Cherry Bomb XB12Scg, which I was immensely proud of, but which I also totalled just 16 days after I bought it. I hadn't even surpassed the break-in mileage, or taken the temporary plates off.
I was badly shaken from the wreck, and emerged with a detached speedometer permanently frozen at 35mph, some major back pain, and a much greater respect for motorcycles. It was a long time before I decided to ride again, and when I did, I bought a very un-Buell-like Kawasaki Concours 1400 sport tourer. It is by all means a great bike for what it is - I even took it on a solo ride from Louisiana, through Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Arizona when I was 20. The trip had been on my bucket-list since high school, so I decided to get it done while I still had the time. I believe it was over 7,000 miles, and spanned over 20 days spent riding, visiting friends and family, and sleeping in hotels, tents, and rest-stop park benches, as well as 30 miles of off-road riding (on a 700lb highway bike!) to camp in the Mojave Desert. The trip was awesome, and the massive loan I took to pay for it is one I am still paying for today. It was well worth it, though, and the pictures below highlight some of the best parts:
Redwood National Forest
Entering California
Route 66
Mojave Desert
Grand Canyon
Me vs Giant Saguaro Cactus - Arizona
Mojave Desert
Okay, so fast forward to present day, and I'm 22, working more-than-full-time, and going to school more-than-full-time as well. "The grind" had really been getting to me, and after a nasty relationship, a bad living situation with loser room-mates, and particularly low point in my life, I decided in one fell swoop to get a new apartment, and fill the HUGE void in my life that I had been longing to resolve. For a LONG time, I had been wishing I had a Buell - a Firebolt - so that I could once and for all, have THE sportbike I felt would fit me like a glove. I don't know how to describe how bad I wanted the bike, and perhaps you guys can understand that I didn't just
want the bike, I genuinely NEEDED it. So, I signed the lease to my new loft apartment, and then began searching like mad for the right bike. For a long time, I couldn't decide between the black or white 08-09 XB12R, but I knew I had it down to those two. Something about being a huge Top Gear fan, made the White/Blue bike really stand out to me (Stig's Bike?) so when I had the color chosen, I shopped through several bikes on Craigslist before finally getting the one you see below. It was actually being sold by another member here, although I forget his username. The bike was 9 hours away, in Georgia. I was in Louisiana, and I had final exams, and two jobs to contend with - but I didn't care. So, as soon as finals were done, I took three days off from work, and drove like a madman all the way to Georgia to pick up the best present I have ever gotten myself. The bike was damn near brand new, with only 3,366 miles, one careful owner, and a whole bunch of extras, including a jacket, a pair of bike stands, and an uninstalled Hawk performance muffler (WHAT A PIPE!!!). The bike wasn't running properly, but new spark plugs, and spark plug wires fixed the problem, and now the bike runs and sound INCREDIBLE. On the way back from Georgia with the bike, I made a point to visit the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, and I was COMPLETELY blown away with all the stuff they had there. I was literally there from the minute they opened, to the minute security came up to tell me they were closing. Very graciously, the security officer took me on his closing circuit, where I got a lot of behind-the-scenes access to parts of the museum that everyday folks don't normally get.
The entire trip - from the drive to Georgia, to glorious moment of picking up the bike, to visiting the largest bike museum in the world - was THE most exciting, action-packed, joy-filled, adventurous three-day vacation anyone in my position could ever ask for.
I brought the bike home, decided my living room would be the perfect place to remove the rusty, stock pipe, and install the freshly powdercoated Hawk pipe. To this day, the bike sits in my dining room, where I do small, restorative upgrades and repairs to it, to get ready to ride this spring. It looks damn fine, if I do say so myself, and it feels like a miniature museum in my apartment now. Absolutely killer. I really, really busted my ass in school and at work for a long time without a social life, or taking any real time for myself, so I am quite happy that I have this Buell to show for it. It's everything I expected it to be, and more, and was exactly what I needed to quell some of the stress of work and school.
I hope you guys enjoy the pictures, and for those of you who read the whole thing - I hope you enjoyed the story as well. Sorry about the uber long post, but I just rarely get time off, so I figured I'd catch up on all the bike-related storytelling I could at one time. I have to get back to catching up on homework so I can relax later and work on getting the bike ready to ride!
Cheers!
- Roger111R
First picking the bike up.
THE ACTUAL DANNY ESLICK, AMA-WINNING 1125! - Barber Museum
More Buells at the Museum:
Exhaust install:
Stock pipe coming off:
My Buell. AKA "Museum Exhibit"
